Process of Digestion

Your digestive system is uniquely designed to turn the food you eat into nutrients, which the body uses for energy, growth and cell repair. One simple way to digestive process is in terms of the following stages: ingestion, digestion, absorption/assimilation, elimination/defecation.

The first stage of the digestion process is ingestion; ingestion is when food taken into the alimentary canal. Food is placed in the mouth than the chewing and the grinding is initiated using the teeth. the throat also known as the pharynx is the next destination for food you've eaten. From here, food travels to the esophagus or swallowing tube. The lubrication and chemical effect of saliva released from the salivary glands and swallowing of the food- which sends it down the digestive tract.

The second stage is digestion which includes two (2) types of processes: mechanical and chemical process. The mechanical includes the chewing and grinding of food by the teeth and also the churning and mixing of the content of the stomach. The chemical process mostly happens in the stomach or small intestine where partly digested materials are the subject to gastric juices, pancreatic juices, succus and so on.

The third stage is absorption and assimilation: absorption is the uptake of fluids or other substance by the tissue of the body. Digestion “food” is absorbed into the bodily fluids blood and lymph from alimentary canal. The small intestine is greatly increase its surface area, and hence the rate at which absorption can take place. Assimilation is when the components and/or chemicals food are taken into the cells of the body after the blood or beverage has been digested and absorbed.

The last and final function of digestive system is excretion of metabolic waste products, from the blood via kidney and urinary tract. Defecation removes indigestible substance from the body so that they do not accumulate inside the gut. The timing of defecation